At What Point Do We Legally Own the Locker?

Recently I won a locker. I was then notified a day later the owner showed up to pay the lien and recovered their contents. I am only asking this not because I am upset with the owner of the locker (obviously) or bid 13 however the facility was an hour drive away. I had not left yet but what if I did? So my question(s) are

  1. at what point do you legally own the locker and
  2. would I have been compensated for my time and mileage had I already departed to retrieve the locker?

have a good day
Kman

Hi Kman,

The laws states a locker is legally yours when the facility receives physical payment. So in other words who ever pays the facility first owns the unit whether it be the Tenant or the winning bidder.

This is the one disadvantage of online storage auctions compared to a live auctions where you are right there and can pay for the unit.

As for compensation for travel time we always mention in the confirmation emails to give the facility a call FIRST before you make your way there. Some facilities are by appointment only so they require a phone call. This will help avoid bidders wasting their time travelling to the facility if they themselves are unavailable.

If the tenant comes in and pays their fee after the auction ends the facility or Bid13 will contact you and issue a refund for your buyers fee.

If you have any other questions or concerns you can address them to support staff at support@bid13.com

All the Best Kman

I won a unit not to long ago and after 10 minutes of winning i get a call that tenant showed up and paid.
So i did not get unit.

Hi Kevin,

If the tenant came and paid after the auction had ended, then the unit belongs to the tenant. When this happens please give Bid13 a call to confirm it as well.

All the Best.

I am wondering if this happens frequently is the storage place just saying they came and paid it so they can try to get more money for it later by starting a new auction.

I dont know just thinking out loud.

Hi Cangirl4vr

A bidder legally owns a locker when the unit has gone through the proper auction process and the bidder physically pays the facility. This is why with online auctions bidders usually schedule to pick up the unit the day the auctions ends.

Majority of auctions never go to the price that is owed to the facility. The facilities are aware of this and are losing money with non paying tenants. They put the unit up for auction to have the items removed for new paying tenants. Even if the facility does make more than what is owed they legally have to turn the extra money over to the city or give it back to the tenant.(depending on state laws)

The reality is a lot of tenants do have the money to pay for their unit, but chose not to and wait to see if the facility will actually put it up for auction. When they see it up they freak out and rush to pay off their debt. Others can’t pay their debts and hope that the winning bidder will leave their personal items behind.

The bidder is usually the winner in all this because depending on the items they can make a lot of money out of cheap unit.

I hope this answers your question. Good luck on the hunt.

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I see you already have been given an answer but I just wanted to say you were lucky. Yesterday I won a auction thru a different online auction co that had a SAFE in it. The location was 310 miles away (5 hours 1 way) so I left at 5am this morning and got there at 10am. Manager informs me the tennent payed the day before and I was supposed to be notified by the online auction co. Got home to find they sent me a notification at 7:58 that morning. I dont mess with my phone while im driving so Im out 10 hours of my time plus over $100 in gas…PLUS I had a blowout going home…new tire was another $178. Worst part of all this is I really have only myself to blame because I didnt speak with the storage manager personally BEFORE I went over there. LESSON LEARNED

OMG you do have me beat lol. What a bad day. This just solidifies my point even more. I still believe and maintain that once the locker goes to auction the tenant shouldn’t legally own it anymore. This can easily be written into the contracts a Tennant signs when renting their Lockers which would prevent these types of issues. Well sorry to hear that buddy I haven’t bid since. Still getting the bad taste out and they haven’t changed their ways. Good luck